Abed. The city of colors, the Sacred City. Home of the Tower of the Gods and where life was a continual feast. Today's wildlife observations would be a slight deviation from the norm–because instead of foreign plants and strange beasts, she would be watching the native people. Myouga liked Abed; it was fun, it was loud, just like like her. But after a while it became kind of…boring, you know? I mean who wants to go through the same thing every single day? Parties were only fun when they were a treat, not the regular course. I mean there was only so much you could do to put a spin on old things before you ran out of innovation. Anyway, that wasn't why she was here. Although she was 'technically' still on vacation, the arcanist was putting a little work in between her play. And this time it was pretty important, too.

Rumor has it that there has been a string of disappearances taking place within the Sacred City's walls. But it wasn't the missing pear or misplaced cargo. People and animals were coming up in the 'missing' lists and anyone worth their salt knew there must've been some kind of foul play. The only way to test a hypothesis was to run an experiment, and so Myouga had snagged one of the stray dogs roaming the streets and magically marked it by feeding it a sausage laced with the tracking material. Sure most of the sausage would end up leaving the dog one way or another, but there should be just enough residue in its body for her to track it down. To make sure she didn't miss her chance, she followed the dog for days until sure enough, it went missing. Unfortunately she didn't get to see who or what took it, but she did know where it had been moments before its abduction. It was a small back alley, but even with her keen eyesight she couldn't find any hidden passages or other signs of abnormality. That could mean many things, one of them being whoever was responsible for the kidnapping had a lot of helpers all over the city.

With her first attempt a failure, the only option was to up the ante. This time, she spotted an Abedi orphan who would sit at the crossroads of streets in hopes of receiving a few coins from the compassion of others. She used the same ploy, with an apple and a loaf of bread. The apple's outer skin had been dipped in the magical tracing solution, which had seeped in through tiny punctures she had made using acupuncture needles. Myouga felt bad that she was doing this, but the solution wasn't toxic and would eventually leave the body as time passed. After a few days, it happened again. The difference now was that she saw the culprit, and wasn't letting this chance escape her. A cloaked figure had approached the child, and the beggar suddenly passed out. While the child was unconscious, the shady individual took him away and no one else was the wiser. Keeping herself concealed with invisibility, she dumped a container of the tracking solution onto the cloaked figure from above and hid when they tried to find who had drenched them. Luckily a woman in one of the building's windows was leaving with an empty jug, thus creating the impression that she had been careless when emptying it. 

Under cover and camouflage she tailed the person until she came upon a place far out of sight of the main streets. There were a few others dressed in the same sinister attire present, and they carried the orphan in. It seemed they even had a password-secret sign system to weed out potential infiltrators. Getting in wasn't going to be easy. She'd have to sneak in, and hope that she could slip out when needed. Ominous banners hung around the doorway with some kind of odd symbol emblazoned on them. A breeze blew by and she caught a whiff of something burning and…blood? 

Abed, a place as full of life as Jillian had ever seen. She loved it, it was an uncommon pleasure to be inside such a city. Most of the time the cities she traveled to were bustling, but not exciting in the same way that Abed was. It brought a smile to the little woman's face, a damn good place to enjoy oneself and take time away from the burdens of travel and work. Jillian wasn't one to take breaks when there was work to be done, but she could certainly use a day or two's worth of rest and it wasn't as if she was actively working towards anything, just wandering aimlessly as she always did. It would be foolish to pass up such an opportunity to have a good time, they didn't come often! 
The halfling spent plenty of time working her behind off, there was no shame in taking a bit of time to 'play'. Perhaps a trip to the tavern, or a bit of exploration around the town!

Of course, that particular line of thinking was cut short. The little woman had a tendency to find trouble and had a keen ear for other people's problems, and if there was one thing that seemed apparent, Abed was having something of a kidnapping issue. She had planned to take the time she was going to be in town to focus on herself, instead of others, but she couldn't very well ignore something so direly important with a good, clear conscious. 

So the halfling found an inn with an open room, skipped the bar, and headed out into the streets. She had no idea where to start, she was an intelligent woman, but she wasn't suited to detective work. She lacked subtlety and the cleverness for it. She was, however, intelligent enough to know not to start asking around about it. The last thing she wanted was for activity to die down because whoever was responsible for the string of kidnappings caught onto her search.

So she did what she was best at doing and wandered about, with no real direction, relying purely on luck to get here where she wanted to go. Of course, this lead into days of wandering around the city in fruitless search for a faceless culprit (or culprits, more likely). She was determined though, she wasn't the sort to give up.

After a few days of this, however, her search paid off. A person dressed in a cloak, carrying off some child. It didn't take anyone particularly shrewd to pick up that something fishy was going on, and it wasn't the market. So with that being her only real lead she put her own cloak's hood over her head and followed the cloaked figure from a distance. 
One of the wonderful things about being a Halfling of her size was that she could pass quite easily as a human child when she wanted to, and all her weapons were hidden underneath her cloak visible only as an outline against the thick material.

Following the cloaked figure, lead to more cloaked figures. If she had any doubts before, they were gone by the time the person carrying the child walked into the building.

Of course, now the issue was, what did she do from there? She put her hands on her hips and stared at the building, in plain view. She hadn't exactly planned on being sneaky. Perhaps if she.

"Hey!- What's goin' on in there?" She yelled after the figures in the most naive, childlike voice she could muster. She didn't really have a plan, just a vague idea of what she wanted to get done.

While Myouga watched under her spell of invisibility, she saw another person approach. This person was small–even shorter than her, which was rare. Here she'd usually expect to be the only one hopping in a crowd or standing on the tips of her toes to see over people's heads and shoulders. They were cloaked, but from the voice they sounded young. The stranger's voice caught the cultists' attention, and as they passed by her hiding place the arcanist held her breath. Oh no, they were spotted! It was clear that these people in robes and cowls were up to no good, and they were indeed armed as she saw sabers and whips under their belts as they walked past. Without a word the cultists looked at each other and moved to add another body to the missing list. There were three cultists outside after the one carrying the orphan went in. Two had scimitars, and one had a nasty-whip with obsidian fragments. The first two charged ahead with weapons brandished and ready to shed blood, while the third hung back preparing some kind of spell. If they started the fight they would ultimately draw the attention of the rest of the shady cloaks inside, and that would end badly.

She dithered, unsure of what to do–or what she should do to not make the situation worse. The first two men garbed in dark robes were too far away now for her to distract without drawing attention to herself, but she had to take out the caster. Everybody knew when fighting an enemy unit, you take out the support and ranged combatants first. Darting her eyes around the alley for anything she could use, she spotted some empty amphorae sitting on the side against the wall. Perfect. Stretching out her hands, she focused her power on it and began to move one with telekinesis. Slowly she brought it closer to the cultist sorcerer whose back was facing her at the moment, and lifted it up high. She had one shot at this; if she slipped up she'd blow her cover and put herself in the crosshairs of whatever the mage was planning. Steeling her resolve, she swung her hand downward sending the clay pot smashing onto the cultist's head.

She breathed a sigh of relief as it hit dead on and the cultist staggered. Without a moment to lose, she leaped up from behind and began smothering the person's face with her hat. It was a game of tug-of-war for a few seconds before the lack of oxygen did its work. One cultist down, two more to go. Dispelling her invisibility she pulled out her wand and pointed at one of the two armed cultist guards. With a wave of the cypress stick, she brought the cultist's clothes to life and soon they began fighting with their own garments. As much as she had wanted to send them all flying into the distance with a bang, she had to take them down quietly to have any chance of sneaking in. Though to her, 'quietly' was a very relative term. Electrocuting the guard who had their clothes enchanted, she nervously checked over her shoulder to see if anyone inside had noticed the commotion yet. She was crossing her fingers and toes in hopes that there wouldn't be a second wave of reinforcements.

While Jillian had somewhat expected to be charged, an occurrence that she was totally prepared for.  In fact by the time she had drawn her broadsword the cultists had only taken a few steps. She was more than ready to take them out alone.
What she was not prepared for, however, was that someone else was around with the same idea and far quicker to deal with the cultists than she herself was. The little woman was rather surprised when another person jumped out of seemingly nowhere and took down one of the cultists, and then thoroughly distract- disposed of a second.  

Surprised or not, Jillian didn't waste any time charging the third, unhindered cultist. Her hood fell back, and by her features, it was far more apparent that she was not a child… at least to anyone familiar with halflings. Where the Cultist had expected a young, untrained child who would make an easy mark, they received a small woman and a blur of cold steel. They hadn't even time to attempt to deflect Jillian's blow, as distracted by the sudden take down of their comrades as they were. The little woman's blade tore its way through their cloak and pierced the soft flesh beneath until they were skewered through the stomach.

"Thanks for the help!"

When the last of the cultist guards fell down, she backed away as his soon to be bleeding corpse hit the dirt. She was wearing white today, which in hindsight probably was a poor choice of color. She saw the person whom she had thought was a child was none other than an adult halfling, and armed to boot. Myouga gave the woman a thumbs up with both hands, then gave a nervous glance over her shoulder before resuming it again. "No problem! Glad I could help! Say, you're not here to bust whatever shady business's going down in there are you?" The arcanist pointed with her thumb at the unguarded door to the hideout. "–'Cause that's what I'm here for." Skittering closer, she began using telekinesis to move the bodies out of sight by throwing them into nearby alleys. Couldn't let the ones inside see that before they were ready. She still had to keep things low-key until the big 'surprise'. 

Looking at the halfling, she assumed she was a fighter. The small oni put a hand to her chin and began stroking an imaginary beard as if thinking of something. "Hmm…you're pretty good at hitting things and taking hits. Me, not so much. How about we team up and cover each other? You scratch my back, and I scratch yours–I think that's how the phrase was supposed to go. Oh, and I'm Myouga!" This was perfect! Two heads were better than one, right? And with her new buddy that she just met under five minutes, they'd be cleaning this place up in no time. Boy, the thought of it was making her giddy–as shown through her face, grinning from ear to ear. Fighting crime as a tag-team duo–it was the stuff of novels and positively picaresque. Her enthusiasm was put in check when the stench of smoke was getting stronger, and she started to worry about what was going on in there. "Uh-oh…I think they're definitely burning something in there. It could be a bunch of things, but I'm sure I'm not going to like what they're starting when I find out…"

Either way, she wasn't leaving until either of them went in. She knew at least two poor unfortunate souls were taken inside that hive of villainy, and she was here to stop it–even if it meant blowing it all to kingdom come. But hopefully she wouldn't have to do that. At least not yet.

"That's what I had planned to do, wasn't quite prepared for all this… at least not mentally, I s'pose physically I was quite prepared looking back." She said thoughtfully, tapping at her chin, before nodding her head at the other woman, "I hadn't quite figured I'd, or rather we'd-at this point, be dealing with a full blown group of cultists. But!- if you're here to do the same as me it'd be foolish to turn down the help, not tha'd it matter anyway." She added, seeming to genuinely like the idea of the two of them working together, and it sure beat taking on the whole building worth of cultists inside. Who knew how many of them could be inside, or even what they were up to!

"Jillian, pleased to meet you, and more than happy to work with you." Jillian reiterated in a slightly less wordy form. The halfling's nose scrunched up, "I doubt either of us will, we'd best hurry. No point in being stealthy this time around, I doubt we have enough time to try to take the quiet approach. Our best bet will likely be to head right on inside and cut down anyone wearing those cloaks. Perhaps if we hit them hard, and quickly enough we can interrupt whatever it is they have goin' on in there." It wasn't much of a plan, but it was certainly better than standing around talking outside, there would be plenty of time for that after they had dealt with whatever it was that was going inside.

With a nod towards the entrance, the halfling started off, bloodied sword in hand. 

"So we're gonna go all-out? I like the sound of that! I'm primed and ready to fire!" The mage grinned, revealing her slightly sharper molars than most. Pulling out her wand she pointed it as if it would fire beams of light from the tip and waved it around in excitement. She went in with Jillian into the den, following the scent of smoke. Inside there were several of the dark cloaks, even more than the ones that had been outside. With no time to waste, she sent a hail of lightning down on everyone who wasn't her or Jillian in an one-sided wipe out. The next few moments were filled with screams and the crackle of electricity flying through the air, and the smell of burnt fabric. Myouga was about to move on when more of the cultists came rushing in, ignoring the bodies of their fallen comrades. She primed another volley of lightning and let them fly, only to frown in disappointment when some of the new reinforcements began shielding the casters. That wasn't very nice. Only she could run and hide behind other people to dodge attacks–not the other way around!

And even more upsetting was that the non-casters were holding magic-deflecting shields. "Hey–no fair! You can't just block it! Quit hiding behind each other and fight me, you–you sissies!" Puffing her cheeks out into a pout the arcanist fumed at the cultists. "Stop shielding and lemme hit you!" This time instead of fire or electricity, she sent down hail and lots of it. There was ice falling everywhere, and it was getting hard to keep track of which cultists were down and which ones were just halfway out cold. The shielded cultists were still untouched by her magical onslaught, but those who were careless hit the ground as chunks of ice collided with them. Any clues of whatever purpose this room had to the cult was decimated in the mage's wanton spell-slinging and whatever had caught on fire was promptly put out by the falling hail chunks. The room only had one way out and one way in. Jillian and Myouga's backs were to the exit, while they faced the entrance to the inner chambers of the hideout.  

"Aye, give them a taste of hell, I'm sure it's the least they deserve." Jillian looked deadly serious, this was grim business for her, she didn't take any pleasure in cutting down anyone, it was only the end result that she was working for that made the whole of it worth it. Upon entering the building she had raised her weapon and had prepared herself to attack the cultists, but Myouga beat her to the punch when she unleashed her magic upon the unfortunate cloaked figures. Myouga's sheer tenacity and excitement were rather a pleasure to witness, it was even admirable how into attacking the cultists she was. Jillian was certain that she had chosen correctly in agreeing to work the mage, if only for her sheer magical ability alone. It was impressive, but there was little point in standing around, it seemed that her companion was having issues taking down shielded foes, but not to any great surprise. The halfling had a few magical tricks up her own sleeve, but none of them were offensive in the least. What was the use in a blade if your enemies could magically strike you down from a distance?- Unless, of course, you were able to resist magic with a little bit of magic of your own. Which was precisely what Jillian did, taking only a moment to prepare her charge into the fray, "Do me a favor, hon, and don't hit me with any of that." The little woman rolled her shoulders and moved in towards the remaining cultists. What Myouga couldn't get with her hail storm and onslaught of other magic Jillian would clean up herself.She practically flung herself at the shielded casters with a loud yell, sword lashing out at her cloaked adversaries. If she couldn't take them out on her own she was certain she could at the very least distract them well enough that her excitable partner could end them with her magical abilities. Between the two of them, it was easy pickings!

"You got it buddy! Go for the shins!" She cheered, now zigzagging between points of cover as she ducked away from flying daggers and other unpleasant pointy objects. As she watched Jillian hurtle towards a shield-bearer and the yell that followed, she decided to infuse the rune she had in her pocket with an emergency gateway spell in case things turned sour. Even if her hands were tied and her magic constrained, all she needed to do was to drop it and they'd have an instant portal out of here. While the halfling cleared out the defenders, Myouga turned herself invisible and teleported her self right behind the platoon of cultists, sending them a thousand magic arrows of pain right into their backsides. If there was one thing she was good at, it was using the element of surprise to get the upper hand. Soon the last armored zealots fell, and there were more bodies on the floor. The ground was quite literally covered in a carpet of corpses.

Throwing her hands up high, Myouga let out a cry of jubilation. "WHOO-HOO!!! OH YEAH!!! Take that you cultist creeps! Get spelled!" To add insult to injury, she took an apple that had fallen on the floor and stuffed in in an unconscious cultist's open mouth and put dried apricots on his eyes. Why did she bother to do this? Because she could, and thus she did. Returning to semi-seriousness, she took a deep breath and exhaled. "…Alright! To the inner sanctum! We must leave no pillow and amphora unturned as we raid their foul fortress!" Jabbing her finger to the doorway ahead, when Jillian was ready she charged in with her. The next area was a long corridor, with many doors. Some were simple doors, likely living quarters. The ones which had more reinforcement clearly meant they held something important, but what really caught her attention was the door at the every end. It was larger than any of the others and had lots of locks on them. Myouga's senses told her that the smoke was getting stronger from that direction, and she was feeling a sudden bout of nausea. Magic…and not the good kind. Her eyes narrowed as she fretted and raised her wand. "By the churning of my gut, something evil's gone amok! I'd love to check what's behind these doors, but not until we get to the bottom of this."

Tapping her foot on the stone tiles, she looked to her halfling cohort. "I'm thinking to blow that door off it's hinges. What do you think? I mean if I was here by myself I'd go ahead, but normally people tell me not to when I try. But it's a-ok with you, then I'd suggest covering your ears."

Jillian didn't quite go for their shins, she aimed quite a bit higher than that, but the point was still made and just as the halfling had expected the cultists are quick to fall between their efforts.She watched Myouga with disgust as she stuffed an apple into a fallen cultist's mouth and place apricots on their eyes, tasteless and wholly unnecessary, but she said nothing about it. It would bother her if she spent too much time thinking about it, and there were far more pressing matters at hand than the mage's odd behaviors and excitability- that to a degree were rather refreshing, "Clearly the two of us make excellent partners!- I'm not sure how well we would have done as individuals against all this. Luck was on our side for sure this time 'round." She noted, a smile filling her lips, the other woman's excitement was contagious and Jillian couldn't very well help herself even as she lead the way deeper into the strange place.
"Something does feel rather unsettling, horrid even. Do what you must to let us in, I could hardly find a good reason for you to not blow our way in. It isn't as if we haven't made more than enough noise at this point anyhow." She nodded towards the door and gave Myouga two thumbs-up, before covering her ears as instructed. She only hoped that the mage wouldn't get too carried away.